A week after winning re-election to the Phoenix City Council in a
grueling and expensive campaign, Sal DiCiccio vowed after his Sept. 6
appearance at the Ahwatukee Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Speakers
Series, "I will clean up City Hall within two years."

More than $1.1 million was spent on the District 6 race
involving Karlene Keogh Parks and DiCiccio, who said he spent about
$430,000. He said he did not anticipate facing such a well-financed
campaign with unions and out-of-state money contributing to mailers on
his opponent's behalf, nor a media campaign that

DiCiccio said he had roughly 30 volunteers who made calls for
him and a handful of people running his campaign. He said that his
polling numbers had shown him at 52 percent, so he was pleased when he
won with 55 percent of the vote.

He outlined his agenda for the new term, including the vow to
clean up City Hall that includes eliminating pension spiking, a practice
that DiCiccio describes as "unconscionable, immoral. It's wrong."

If DiCiccio can get one more supporter on the City Council to
back a vote, he believes that the pension-spiking policy that allows
retiring city employees to pad their pensions with cashed-in vacation,
sick leave and other accumulated city benefits, could be eliminated
quickly. This policy leaves the taxpayers with $2.4 billion in unfunded
pension debt, he said, and no way to pay for it.

Another city practice that DiCiccio wants to eliminate is
"maximizing the primary." DiCiccio describes this process as stripping
money from capital funds (secondary-tax monies, such as bonds) and
transferring it to day-to-day operational, or primary, expenses like
salaries and supplies. The secondary funds had been available to cover
road repair, parks, libraries, senior centers and other benefits to
taxpayers. The process legally allows 2 percent of funds to be shifted
annually, he said, but the transfers deplete reserves that would provide
for maintenance. He is concerned that roads could start showing wear
and tear if the money juggling is not stopped.

DiCiccio also discussed economic development, including
clustering, a concept he favors, which encourages attracting development
of medical, educational or other like or related businesses in one
area.

DiCiccio said he will begin working for "full restoration of
senior centers, parks, and libraries" that suffered cutbacks in service
during the Great Repression and as a result of shifted funds.

He plans to continue his support of anti-domestic-violence programs and those to aid homeless people.